Monday, May 24, 2010

Weekend Progress Report #20

Thanksgiving Ornament: PS Harvest Time Turkey. This is the second time I have stitched this little guy and I must say it is going much more smoothly than the first time [about 10 years ago]. I did run into one small snag though. I had been sure that I had two partial skeins of Maple Syrup from the same dyelot ... alas, I did not ... and I have run out. So I have ordered three skeins from my favorite online shop with the stipulation that they be from different dyelots ... so I have at least a fighting chance of matching what I have already stitched. I am hoping to finish this before the month is over. See my previous post for more details on stash enhancement: I was assured everything would be shipped Monday so I anticipate receiving a very nice package by Wednesday or Thursday.

Bride's Tree SAL: Aury's Quaker Bird in a Nest. A Bird in a Nest symbolizes "confidence in the shelter" as per the SAL blog sidebar ... but since there is no way I could fit such a long tag line on the back and still have room for the monogram ... I am going to condense the tag to the single word "security" which I think expresses the theme as effectively and even more economically. This complimentary chart came from aury's blog . I am stitching it on the same Glasgow 28ct raw linen that I have been using for all the ornaments in this SAL and will finish it in the same fringed pillow ornament style with hemp cord hanger. I have used Belle Soie silks: Chocolate for the nest and Chester's Blue for the bird. I thought a blue bird would be a nice touch since blue birds are traditionally associated with happiness and since a blue bird could be my "something blue" in this Bride's Tree set. I'll be adding a border made of leaf shaped Quaker motifs to square the whole thing off, though I haven't yet charted that out. When stitching the back I will use the same leaf border as an outline. This chart is somewhat annoying, having color blocks to indicate cross-stitches and for some reason when I downloaded the file, the gridlines didn't show up ... in their place were very faint white dotted lines, which showed up on the color coding but not on the white paper on which I printed the chart. Counting the required stitches in the larger stitching areas is a pain. Even so, this project is proving to be a relatively quick stitch.

And I finally got my Round Robin piece off in the mail on Thursday morning. This was the replacement I made for Lisa's Snowman themed project, since the original was lost in the mail. I have yet to receive the next installment in this round robin. The mailing date was May 15th. I was late getting my piece off because I kept waiting for Lisa's piece to arrive in the mail and only decided it wasn't coming on 5/9 at which time I purchased fabric and created a piece. But I am getting a little concerned not to have received this next piece. One project lost in the mail, possible; two projects lost in the mail in a 30 day period, unlikely. I have e-mailed the organizer and she shares my concern and is checking things out.

I have also kitted up another small off-goal project, Heart in Hand's Wee Bee. I am in the mood to stitch something sunny and summery and this fits the bill. My thanks to Nic who sent me this chart, along with a plethora of other bee charts.

And I am just itching to try my hand at some encrusted crazy quilting [I am seriously thinking of signing up for an online class starting on 5/26]. And having bought some silicone cupcake cups, I am anxious to make a cupcake pin cushion. I have been matching floss to the cups and have been combing through some of my smaller charts for possible pin cushion tops. I see another off-goal project in the near future.

I am anxious to get back to my BAP, though, now that things have gone back to normal at work ... TW's AutumnFaerieneeds a completed border rather desperately ... it's been languishing in almost total neglect since February when I got involved in this RR ... creating my own rather ambitious piece and then having to create a snowman piece with borders and dividers to replace Lisa's MIA project took up a great deal of time. Now that I can finally just stitch my own panel in future RRs, I anticipate more time for my own projects.

On the non-stitching front, I have finally made a trip to the nursery and have purchased 3 varieties of tomato plants [Rutgers, Sungold, large cherry], Black Beauty eggplant, two varieties of basil, plain leaf and curly leaf parsley, two varieties of chives, some Boston lettuce plants and some marigolds for companion planting. I also got the last fig tree available at our local nursery, a Turkish Brown rather than the Calmyra I wanted, but still a fig. I plant everything in large patio containers using the Square Foot Gardening method ... anybody remember that PBS show from the 80s. I have gotten everything planted except the fig tree, which I will tackle tomorrow when I am better rested. In the meantime, my garden dragon stands guard over my plantings. I also bought some seed packets for more types of lettuce so that I can start seedlings every week and have lettuce throughout the summer. I have a packet of cucumber seeds and though it is rather late, I'll plant them tomorrow morning as well. The advantage of container gardening is that the soil in the containers is warmed by the sun on all sides, instead of just the top ... so sometimes, one can get away with a late planting, as long as September remains warm.